Windows/Mac/Linux: Last week Google announced a free DNS service designed to speed up your browsing, but just because Google wants to be fast doesn’t actually mean they’re the best option for you. Namebench finds the fastest DNS server for your connection.
After you download and fire up namebench, just click the Start Benchmark button to test out a handful of free public DNS services, from Google Public DNS to OpenDNS to UltraDNS. Once started, the test took about 12 minutes to complete using the default settings. When it’s done, you’ll be presented with a handful of handy charts displaying the results of the tests.
You can see the results to my test in the screenshots above and below. From the looks of things, UltraDNS is the DNS that’s going to do the most to speed up my connection. In fact, it claims UltraDNS will be 46% faster than Google Public DNS (the DNS server my computer was using when I ran the test)—so it looks like I may just be switching yet again.
Nambench is a free, open-source download, works with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. If you give it a try, let’s hear what DNS server scores highest for you in the comments.
namebench [Google Code via Smarterware]
Tha names not bob
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 1:18 PMSo what impact does changing to a ‘free’ dns have on offerings like iiNet’s freezone?
Would previously free content become metered?
Mark
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 3:00 PMassuming it’s a publicly listed site (just tried it myself on a transact connection so it still works) it shouldn’t effect it. they would have the accounting software calculate that internally not based on what dns you use. the dns is only used to find the ip address anyway which your computer uses to connect.
namelesstechie
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 3:41 PMAs mentioned here:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/10/opendns-deluxe-adds-deeper-controls-and-email-support/#comments
using a ‘free’ DNS can have impact on things like iiNet’s freezone